Category: Featured

The arts are becoming a topic of increased public attention and interest in Wrexham – especially with the recent announcement of Ty Pawb as the name for the town’s new arts and markets development.

And as shown in a recent gallery display at Glyndwr University, showcasing the output of a group of young people who undertook a summer-long arts training workshop with a roster of professional artists, Wrexham has a great pool of talent in place.

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The work was produced by 17 young artists and students during their time on the Portfolio summer art school, a project run by Oriel Wrecsam, with the support of the Welsh Government, the Arts Council of Wales and the National Lottery.

The young artists, all of whom were studying Art and Design at GCSE or A Level, are aged between 14 and 18.

The project ran throughout July and August, with the young people on the course getting the chance to try their hand at a variety of arts – including cyanotype printing, sculpting and multimedia design.

The artists leading the workshops throughout the course were Mike Ryder, Paul Jones, John Merrill and Ben Rider.

The workshops will continue next year, with a summer arts school to be held at Ty Pawb and Glyndwr University’s School of Art and Design.

Cllr Hugh Jones, Lead Member for Communities, Partnership, Public Protection Community Safety, said: “I offer my congratulations to all the young people who took part in the Portfolio summer arts project, and I’m very pleased they had their work showcased.

“Their efforts are impressive, and it’s heartening to see the level of artistic dedication and talent among young people in Wrexham.

“We hope the local arts and crafts community take advantage of the new exhibition opportunities posed by Ty Pawb open its opening next year to showcase their work and their wares.”

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A local community joined forces recently to help tidy up their local area.

The environmental action day was held at Smithfield in Caia Park. Wrexham Council’s Caia estate office arranged for a huge skip to be placed on the estate and local tenants were able to bring out bulky rubbish and unwanted items.

Housing officers, caretakers and the council’s Streetscene operatives were on hand to help tenants dispose of their rubbish.

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A helping hand from local volunteers

By the end of the event, the skip had filled up with all kinds of items from bikes and chairs to microwaves and furniture.
Luckily, there were some extra helping hands available thanks to some tenants and members of the nearby Rock Chapel, who kindly volunteered their time to come and help out.

After the event, the volunteers were offered some much needed refreshments, donated by the local Co-op.

“Busiest events ever” this summer

Local Councillor for Smithfield, Cllr Adrienne Jeorrett, said, “I’d like to thank the estate office staff, Streetscene, the Co-op and the tenants and volunteers from the Rock Chapel for coming together to help tidy our local area.

“A huge amount of rubbish was able to be taken away so this has obviously been an enormous help to many tenants and it’s very kind of those involved to have donated their time to help make this event a success.”

Cllr Mark Pritchard, Leader of Wrexham Council, said: “Environmental action events are held regularly on estates across the county borough. We’ve seen some of the busiest ever events at many locations this summer so it’s great to see that they continue to be very popular. They provide a valuable service for tenants by allowing them to dispose of large rubbish items without having to travel far from their homes.”

Up to date information on these events is posted on the council tenants’ facebook page.

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With the Local Elections in May not long behind us – in which the people of Wrexham cast more than 37,523 votes for the current Council – and with people now getting back to work after their summer breaks, many residents may be keeping keen eyes on their recently-elected local members as they start to get more involved in Council business.

But not many people know, outside of the basics, just what’s expected of the role of a councillor – in short, what being a councillor involves.

Councillors’ roles are becoming increasingly varied and complex, with the old stereotypical image of councillors sitting in lots of meetings becoming outdated as changes have come in during the past few years.

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The old fundamentals haven’t changed – councillors will be involved in community life, have to familiarise themselves with important local issues and concerns, and represent their electorate to the Council.

As well as representing the concerns or issues raised by people living in their respective wards to Wrexham Council or other agencies, councillors will also sit on some committees as members, such as the Executive Board, Scrutiny Committees, Planning Committee or – as you’d expect – the full Council itself.

And that’s not counting some other local commitments on outside bodies they may decide to take outside of their role at Wrexham Council, which could include being a governor at a local school, sitting on their local Community Council or getting involved in groups in their area, which could be anything ranging from sports clubs to the management of amenities such as village halls.

They might even represent the council on bigger regional bodies, such as the Welsh Local Government Association or the North Wales Economic Ambition Board etc.

Wide-ranging role

There has been some debate recently on social media around councillors’ attendance at meetings such as the Executive Board, and whether or not councillors are expected to attend all meetings of all committees under the rules.

It used to be the case that councillors were paid an allowance based on attendance at committees, but this meant they received no payment for all the work they did in their wards and on other bodies.

The rules have since changed, and councillors now receive a type of salary, which takes into account the likely number of meetings they will attend but is not dependent upon attendance as such.

The most significant role these days is for members to act as community leaders, advocates and facilitators, and most of this work is done outside the Council Chamber.

Of course, if members feel they have the time to attend meetings of committees other than those they have been appointed to, they are most welcome to attend all the meetings they can – but most councillors will have a variety of other duties, including working for a living, and may not be able to attend all meetings all of the time.

If a councillor is a member of a specific committee, such as the Planning Committee, Executive Board or any one of our Scrutiny Committees, then their attendance at such meetings is expected and they will be expected to give their apologies if they cannot be in attendance – and that goes for the full Council itself.

Also, some councillors maintain part-time or perhaps even full-time work outside of their roles, which of course means greater obligations on their time, and many will also have family caring responsibilities

Cllr Mark Pritchard, Leader of the Council, said: “All members are elected to directly represent their local communities, and at its fullest, being a councillor is a 24/7 job, throughout all 365 days of the year.”

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Long-awaited works at a town centre leisure and activity facility are complete – with members of the public invited to try out the facilities this weekend.

Capital works are now all in place at Waterworld in Wrexham, ending five-month period of work on the facility and its amenities.

The former entryway will now form the new MYRIDE indoor cycling studio with virtual cycling software, offering scenic locations and a highly immersive cycling experience for personal and group training.

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A new entry area, complete with a refurbished café and seating area, will greet visitors to the Leisure and Activity Centre, with Costa Coffee on sale.

The improved gym area, complete with new Omnia Gym equipment, will even give members the chance to monitor their progress via the Technogym Wellness Cloud system, which tracks their exercise on a USB stick and associated app which can be plugged in to all equipment.

The ladies ground floor changing rooms for gym users have also been refurbished to a new, modern standard, with new lockers and seating in place.

An open weekend will be held for members of the public this weekend (Saturday, September 23 to Sunday, September 24), giving them the chance to trial many of the new facilities for free.

An official opening for the new facility will take place later in October.

Wrexham Council began a contract with Freedom Leisure last spring, with the leisure company taking on the management of four leisure and activity centres and five dual-use sports facilities.

The improvements at Waterworld are just one part of £2.7million worth of investment made by Wrexham Council and Freedom Leisure into all four leisure facilities and new 3G pitches across the county borough.

“Facilities are absolutely fantastic”

Cllr Paul Rogers, Lead Member for Youth Services and Anti-Poverty and with responsibility for Leisure, said: “These new facilities are absolutely fantastic, and I was very pleased to get the chance to tour the new additions to the ground floor at Waterworld.

“I’ve followed the capital works since becoming the Lead Member responsible for leisure and I’ve always said the pace of work has been excellent, but the ground floor area – particularly the new café and seating area – is completely unrecognisable even when compared with earlier in the works.

“I’m really pleased to see the work complete and hope members of the public take advantage of Waterworld’s upcoming open weekend.”

Andy Harris, Freedom Leisure Area Manager, said: “The work to improve four of our Leisure and Activity Centres has been ongoing for a little while now, so it’s very pleasing to see the work in its very final stages, with the vast majority already completed.

“More importantly, users have already reported to us how happy they are with the enhanced facilities and offerings – which is excellent.

“After all, the main aim of undertaking the work was to ensure we provide the best possible facilities for our existing customers, while also attracting new users too. Along with Wrexham County Borough Council, we simply want to enable more people in Wrexham to be more active, more often.”

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Picture: Cllr Paul Rogers with Waterworld Manager Richard Milne.

You’ll probably have heard a lot about Communities First in the past year, with some coverage in the press – local and national – as the scheme comes to an end next year.

A lot of people might not use Communities First-provided services or even know what it is – while other people may have used it regularly.

Communities First was set up by the Welsh Government in 2001, with the aim of tackling poverty in 52 of the most deprived areas in Wales.

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In October last year, Carl Sergeant AM, the Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children, announced that he was minded to bring Communities First to an end.

Further details were provided by Mr Sergeant in February, with an announcement that funding for all Communities First schemes would come to an end by March, 2018.

In Wrexham, Communities First works across a number of “clusters” – areas in the county borough that are suitable and eligible for Communities First support.

The two clusters in Wrexham are the Caia Park and Hightown Cluster, which serves (as its name suggests) Caia Park and Hightown, and the Urban Villages Cluster, which covers a number of areas – including Cefn Mawr, Gwersyllt and Llay.

The work done by Communities First covers a lot of areas, offering services under the three priorities of Prosperity, Health and Learning.

Since 2015, the main focus has been on supporting people into or towards employment.

Because the services provided by Communities First have helped a lot of different people, we know a lot of people will want to know what happens to them next, and what steps are being taken to work with them.

A lot of things are still taking place and schemes are still in the process of coming to an end or changing – but here’s a few of the basic details.

Is Wrexham Council shutting Communities First down?

No –and it’s not Wrexham Council which started them. Funds for Communities First come from the Welsh Government, with councils then running the services locally.

Are these schemes just finishing in Wrexham?

No – the decision to close Communities First schemes affects all of Wales, not just Wrexham. After March 31, 2018, Communities First will not be funded anywhere in Wales.

Isn’t this all a bit last minute?

Those groups running the individual services funded by Communities First have known about the wind-down of funding since the announcements made by the Cabinet Secretary.

They will be able to either start closing down services or searching for other funding sources.

A Transition Team, operated by Communities First, is helping groups wind down individual schemes and look at the future.

Alongside the work of the Transition Team, Communities First has also provided funding for some schemes to continue running during their remaining months.

Does that mean these schemes will just come to an end?

That’s what’s being looked at, and we want to explore those ways that the Transition Team can help the groups supported by Communities First keep going into the future.

Where possible, the team can help them secure other sources of funding, which will make sure they stay viable and can keep up their good work.

Sadly, some of them won’t be able to keep going beyond the end of March, 2018 without Communities First funding – and in those cases, groups are managing the closure of their individual services , and the Transition Team is helping them where it can.

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